Newburgh, NY - The women's basketball team visited the Knights of Mount Saint Mary College earlier this evening for a non-conference matchup. The Hawks fell behind early in the game and were unable to recover, resulting in a 72-63 loss. Hunter moves to 1-4 overall on the season.

Janine Conway led the offense for Hunter with 22 points on 10-28 shooting while Phoebe Valenton added 17 points and eight assists. The Hawks had scoring contributions from six other players and shot 38.5 percent from the field.

The hosts opened the game with two back-to-back made three pointers. A jumper from Conway and a three from Valenton put the Hawks on the board. Theresea Leung gave Hunter their first lead, 7-6 with a jumper at the 7:24 mark. With 15 seconds left in the first, Valenton hit a jumper to register the final points of the quarter and set the scoreboard at 26-21 in favor of the hosts.

Each team struggled in the second quarter with the Hawks scoring just four points and the Knights nine. Heading into the half, Mount Saint Mary led 35-25. After the hosts opened the third with a jumper, Hunter faced a 12 point deficit but managed to cut it down to four thanks to six unanswered points from the duo of Conway and Isabella Santos. However, at the conclusion of 30 minutes, the Purple and Gold still faced a nine-point uphill battle, 55-46.

Hunter was able to close the gap to just seven points, but it's as close as they would get. Down the stretch, the hosts had enough in the tank to hold off the Hawks.

The women's basketball team is back in action on Saturday, November 30 when they travel to Washington DC to take on Gallaudet University at 2pm.